Is there money to be made sculpting busts of people?

Question

I am a novice sculpture but I know that if I were to study and practice I can duplicate anyone in clay. I was wondering I could make a living at it?

Answer 1

I know people make money body casting pregnant women. I think you need an angle to market this as a talent. I don't think horney young boy will simply do kiddo. Good Luck

Answer 2

The number of people who make money doing this kind of thing is small, although new materials may make it easier to sketch with clay-like materials the way people do chalk drawings.
Doing something in fired clay is time consuming. Doing something in bronze is even more time consuming and costly.
The number of people who are willing to pay for a bust of a loved one or themselves is relatively low. Our society tends to reject expressions of ego (self-images) unless they are presented as expressions of love (my family, my wife)
Most people making a living a sculpture have spent all or part of their life teaching while still working on their sculptures.
You might look at what is being done with pottery that is sculpture-like and attend craft shows to see what is being done for sales and galleries for pure sculpture.

Answer 3

Are you good enough to sculpt faces?
People dont want to sit for hours just having their bust sculpted - but faces is something you may be able to do by just using photos instead of the person.

I sculpt peoples whole body and face in miniature size - just by using photos.

Otherwise, the only thing you will be bale to do that will make you money - is to sculpt your own desgins for busts - artistic styles - and put them in Art Galleries. If you are good enough to make it look like a piece of Art - then people may buy it for their homes or workplaces.

Answer 4

.....and then u can fire it in an oven and glaze it too? or is it supposed to sit and get moldy?(sounds labor intensive & expensive) who has the wants to sit and pose when there is a war sucking up the world again, maybe somewhere there is a application u could use to be employed by the talents but most just watched and did this in school and moved on-not trying to give u a negative impression-just that i could do the same and i never could get to art money that wasn't so snobby that i left with out my heart intact-1951 Santa maria Calif. elementary school had the world fastest clay sculpturer in front of me and this was two hours of stuff i still have a head full of today, but do it to enjoy it till u find a solution then

Answer 5

If you find rich patrons who don't care whether you truly are sculpting art, since art is the process of the destruction of sameness.